1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to bus seats, and more particularly relates to an EPP cushion in a school bus seat for easy removal and installation into a bus.
2. Description of Related Art
Bus seats have been known for many years in the prior art. Many prior art bus seats have seat back trim that is affixed to a frame of the bus seat by a stapling operation to a plywood base of the seat back. The same arrangement is generally used for the seat cushion, such as utilizing rebond foam or polyurethane foam which have a predetermined thickness attached to a plywood board for structural stiffness and comfort of a school bus seating cushion. After attaching the foam to the plywood board, a cover material is attached to the seat cushion foam via a stapling operation. In addition, these prior art seat bus seat cushions typically utilize steel latching hardware to maintain attachment of the seat cushion assembly to the seat frame. This prior art setup of steel latching hardware often weighs in access of ten pounds, thus creating a heavy and hard to replace seating system. Generally, these bus seat back covers and bus seat cushions are made of a vinyl material. Furthermore, these prior art bus seats also use a seat trim cover for the cushion portion of the seat that is affixed to the cushion utilizing a staple gun that attaches the trim cover to a plywood substrate. This prior art methodology of stapling has been used for many years. Many of these prior art bus seat cushions have manufacturing practices that do not clearly define the start and stop corner folds resulting in inconsistent final appearances for the bus seat cushions. Also, many of these prior art bus seat cushions are very challenging to service because the customer must cut off the old bus seat cushion cover trim and then re-staple a new bus seat cover over the cushion into the underlying plywood of the bus seat cushion. Furthermore, the time needed to service or replace the bus seat cover cushion or seat back is very time intensive and labor intensive. Furthermore, these prior art bus seat cushions are very heavy and make installation and maintenance of the bus seat very time and labor intensive.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved school bus seat cushion. There also is a need in the art for a school bus seat cushion that is a minimum of forty percent lighter than the current cushion designs, thus reducing the overall seat assembly weight. Furthermore, there is a need in the art for a school bus seat cushion that nests inside the frame for increased securement in both lateral and fore/aft directions versus typical mounting configurations of the prior art. There also is a need in the art for a school bus seat cushions that provides an anti-submarine ramp, which may help properly position the occupant during a crash event or the like. There also is a need in the art for a school bus seat cushion that removes the need for special tooling to disassemble and reassemble the cover material arranged over the school bus seat cushion, thus making the replacement more efficient and less time consuming.